Apple is simplifying iPad’s multitasking controls, while simultaneously expanding its capabilities with iPadOS 15, finally making it a platform that will appeal to power users that might not have the time or patience to fiddle with the drag and pause gestures required in the current version. The iPad has been pitched as a tablet that can replace a laptop and making it easier to manage more than one app will certainly help that argument.
The first iPad had a nice snappy feel to it, even with its A4 processor, which had a fraction of the processing power of the latest M1 iPad Pro. Part of the reason for its responsive feel was its limitation of opening one app at a time and only allowing system processes to run in the background. It took another five years for Apple to bring a limited form of split-screen multitasking to its tablet, allowing better productivity. Three years passed before the next big change, this time making it easier to select apps for multitasking but requiring drag and drop to enable split-screen or drag and hold in a particular part of the screen to control if (and how) the split happened. It was awkward, to say the least.
In the fall of 2021, Apple will release iPadOS 15 as a general update, making its improved split-screen and multitasking user interface available to any iPad model that was introduced in 2014 or after, including the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4, first-generation iPad Pro, and newer models. Apple handled the change in a way that won’t be shocking to current users, retaining the old drag gestures while adding the new visual controls as a quicker and easier to discover option, eliminating any user difficulty during the transition period. The key to better split-screen and slide-over is the new ellipsis icon that appears at the top of every app when running iPadOS 15. It looks like three dots and Apple refers to this as the More Options icon. Tapping this control at the top of any app that is open will reveal a small horizontal menu with all of the app viewing modes, including full-screen, split-screen, and slide-over.
How To Control iPadOS 15 Multitasking
With the next version of Apple’s iPad operating system, multitasking looks and responds to the same gestures as before, but usability has improved dramatically. When tapping the split-screen icon, the current window slides to the edge to allow easy access to the Home Screen to select the app for the other half of the screen. Apps can also be combined into a split by dragging and releasing them on other apps in the multitasking view. Switching apps within each pane of the split has become simpler. As always, the divider can be adjusted, allowing an even 50-50 split or favoring one app with three-quarters of the screen and leaving one-quarter for the other.
Slide-over works in the same manner as the current version of iPadOS, sliding in from the right edge but can be swiped to the left now also, sliding out from the left if stored away there. This gives the user control of placement, which is a nice change. Any iPad app can be made into a slide-over by tapping the More Options ellipsis icon and then the slide-over icon. When in split-screen mode, this releases the split, appearing to hover in one-quarter size over the app from the other pane which expands to full-screen. The top of the slide-over is still the area to drag to move the slide-over to the left or right. iPadOS 15 is available now in public beta form, which means there are a few extra steps required to install it. The new split-screen controls for the iPad offer quick and easy use allowing anyone to multitask like a pro.
